


My Partner in Crime

by Ranger_NJoyC



Series: The Secrets of Sanctuary [1]
Category: Fablehaven Series - Brandon Mull
Genre: But like only mildly rn, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Vanessa Santoro has Anxiety, Vanessa Santoro has Insomnia, Vanessa Santoro has Intrusive Thoughts, Vanessa Santoro has Issues, Vanessa's Home Life is Not Ideal, Vanessa's Parents are Illegal and Should Probably Be Banned from Raising a Child tbh, Warren Burgess is a Dumbass, i'll update the tags if it gets any more graphic tho, it's mentioned in an offhand comment, the author? self projecting? more likely than you think
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:34:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27380509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ranger_NJoyC/pseuds/Ranger_NJoyC
Summary: When a mysterious new family moves in across the street from Warren, he is immediately drawn to the thrill of suspense. After befriending their daughter, Vanessa, together they team up to explore the secrets of the town. But being associated with the Santoro family might have more consequences than Warren could’ve ever imagined. Soon, he has a real mystery on his hands- one he is determined to solve before Vanessa inevitably has to leave town forever.Warrenessa Mortal Childhood Friends AU
Relationships: Dale Burgess & Warren Burgess, Warren Burgess & Vanessa Santoro
Series: The Secrets of Sanctuary [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2000155
Comments: 6
Kudos: 6





	1. Warren I

**Author's Note:**

> This is a kind of strange AU, but we're rolling with it. This chapter is pretty short, but ehh. That's okay.  
> I should be updating once a week. We're meeting Van in the next chapter, so buckle up kids, for a thrilling mystery and lots of drama.

Warren laughed and bounced forward, scampering over tree roots and ducking under branches. His older brother, Dale, followed at a less than enthusiastic pace. Warren swung his satchel back and forth and he flitted around the trail, crouching to look at interesting plants and hoisting a wooden sword in the air. He was the wind. He was the trees. He could be anything he chose to be.

Today he was a mighty forest spirit, reclaiming his homeland.

“Thy creatures of the forest, bow down to thy king!” He announced in a dramatic voice. A rush of adrenaline raced through him as he dropped the short wooden broadsword and grabbed onto the tree above him, swinging up onto the branch. Dale rolled his eyes and pulled Warren down from the unstable tree.

“Watch where you step,” Dale scolded his twelve-year-old brother. Warren shot him a playful glare and wiggled out of his reach.

“Isn’t this so cool, though?” Warren gushed. “I’ve never been allowed in this part of the forest before! Do you think I’ll be allowed to adventure out here by myself soon?” The idea thrilled Warren. Not that he hadn’t gone exploring before, but it would be nice to have official permission.

Dale frowned. “Not too soon, most likely. There are some dangerous things out there.”

Warren pouted. “But you never play along,” He protested. “It ruins the novelty of hunting for secret treasure or running from bandits when you’re here.” Catching the look on Dale’s face, Warren hastened to amend his statement. “I mean,” He emphasized. “You never play along with my adventures. You’re always so serious out here. I mean, I’ve never even seen anything remotely dangerous.”

Dale froze. “What did you say?”

Warren looked to the ground and cursed himself. His tendency to speak before thinking was going to get him into trouble one of these days. “I may or may not have come out here a few times,” He muttered, kicking at the ground with his shoe. He looked up, crossing his arms over his chest, ready to defend himself. “I only didn’t tell you because I knew you would go into full ‘big brother’ mode and scold me about it.”

“Warren, that’s because it actually is dangerous! What part of ‘dangerous’ do you not understand? You could’ve died out here alone!”

Warren rolled his eyes, and jogged forward. He got farther ahead of Dale and turned a corner, out of sight of the main pathway. Groaning, he hit his head against a nearby tree. Dale just didn’t understand. Warren wasn’t a baby, he could handle himself. Dale worried too much. The movement rustled the bushes under his feet, and something slithered out.

Curious, Warren leaped down and peered closely at the ground. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw another movement and he pounced, snatching at the ground with his hands. In his hands, he held a long, writhing snake. Quickly, he adjusted his grip so that it couldn’t bite him, and examined the patterns on the back. It looked like it could be poisonous, but the snake held no fear from Warren. He sat there for a few minutes, playing with the snake and taking pictures with his digital camera.

\--------

Dale came around the corner and saw his brother holding a long snake. He shouted in alarm, and grabbed Warren’s hand, forcing him to release the reptile. Warren cried out in protest, but Dale grabbed him firmly by the hand and started marching out of the forest. He didn’t look back until their large house on the outskirts of town was in sight.

“What were you thinking?” He hissed through his teeth, dragging Warren back into the house. He tried to keep his voice quiet. He didn’t want to bring their parents into this. Because as angry(worried) as he was about his brother, he didn’t want him grounded for life.

“It was friendly!” Warren whisper-shouted back.

“It was poisonous!”

“It wasn’t going to bite me.”

Dale rounded to face his younger brother, who was staring back at him with angry determination in his eyes. Dale knew he couldn’t win this fight, but he had to try to get him to listen to reason.

“There’s something fishy going on in this town, I tell you. The exotic, dangerous animals are only part of it.”

Warren spread his hands in what was supposed to be a placating gesture. “Then why don’t we just go investigate?”

Dale rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Warren, real life isn’t some mystery novel. You aren’t a detective and you aren’t a secret agent crime fighter.” Dale knew this better than most people. He was a police-officer in training, and he had discovered this truth very early on in his career.

“I’ll never know until I try. I’ve never had a real mystery to solve before. Why can’t I go investigate? Why can’t I be a super spy?"

“This is the exact reason you aren’t allowed to go into the woods by yourself, don’t you see? It’s like you have a death wish.”

“Like rules have ever stopped me before,” Warren murmured angrily.

Dale fixed a hard look on him. “That’s the kind of attitude that will get me telling Mom and Dad about your little ‘adventures’,” Dale warned.  
“Snitch,” Warren muttered, before adopting an over-the-top cheery expression and huge eyes. “I’m so sorry, Dale, my wise older brother dear. I pinky promise it will never ever happen again and I will obey every single rule ever in existence.”

Dale tried not to roll his eyes or let his exasperation show. Warren took off his boots and bounded up the stairs towards his room.

“Just… try to be careful, okay?”

“You know me, Dale,” Warren called over his shoulder. “Careful is my middle name.”


	2. Vanessa II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Van moves to Sanctuary. Warren is just a tad bit creepy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> h-haha... look who finally decided to get back into this project...  
> These chapters are really short but oh well. It's not my choice, I promise. These things just happen. I don't control this au, this au controls me.

Vanessa sighed, resting her cheek against the glass. It was well past midnight, she knew this because every five minutes she had checked her watch. Normally it would have taken five hours to drive from their old house to their new house, in a new town, called Sanctuary. 

_Not that it would protect them for long_ , Vanessa thought bitterly.

But the Santoro family was anything but normal. They had been driving all day, taking winding back roads and looping around to shake off the wailing sirens of police cars. Vanessa was used to the drill- running and hiding and starting a new life every other month. Sanctuary was supposed to be a relatively peaceful town, but it wouldn’t take the police long to find them, like they always did.

Was a normal life too much to ask for? To spend her childhood in one place. To not have to be mature and careful all the time. Vanessa doubted she would ever be able to go anywhere without looking over her shoulder ever again. Caution was ingrained in her brain from an early age. It was a necessity for life in a family of smugglers and illegal dealers.

The car turned into a quiet street. There were only a few other houses and most looked broken down and unused. ‘Peaceful’ was an understatement. This town was downright abandoned.

They pulled into a gravel driveway and parked the car. It was a tall house, Vanessa noted, maybe three floors. That’s better than they normally got, but then again she couldn’t imagine retail prices to be off the charts in a neighborhood like this. Maybe it was haunted. Vanessa shivered. With its tall, pointed roofs, gnarled bushes, and flaking gray paint, it wouldn’t have surprised her.

She got out of the small car and stretched. Vanessa was hesitant to approach the possibly haunted house, but she didn’t want to stay outside either. Hopefully she could explore the house tonight and get a feel for the space. She needed to know the best hiding places and escape routes for when the cops inevitable came, and her parents would expect a map of the routes. Though as usual, Vanessa already knew she would ‘neglect’ to mention a few small hiding spots. It was always nice to have a safe space when her mother was in one of her moods.

Vanessa climbed the front steps quietly. She pulled out the emergency key her father had entrusted to her and unlocked the door. She slipped inside, trying not to touch the rough wood boarding up the door. Her footsteps echoed loudly through the cold house. She shivered as the temperature seemed to drop three degrees with every step.

Vanessa had a feeling she would _not_ like living here.

Looking over her shoulder, Vanessa could see her mom and dad making their way through the first room. She nearly ran into a door from not looking forward, but stopped herself just in time. Slowly, it creaked open and revealed a dusty staircase, sending a shiver down Vanessa’s spine. Hesitantly, but morbidly curious, she wondered where the stairs would lead. To a room full of dead bodies? Walls covered in blood? Medieval torture devices? Dissected animals in jars? The possibilities running through her mind were endless.

Only one way to find out.

Vanessa crept up the stairs. Each one creaked under her footsteps, and she worried for a second that the whole staircase would give out under her weight. It clearly hadn’t been used in a long time, if not for the creaking, Vanessa would’ve been able to tell from the thick layer of dust that came up from the steps and railing. It swelled up under her, sending her into a coughing fit that echoed through the narrow stairwell. It noise unsettled her so much she covered her mouth to muffle the coughs.

The light switch hadn’t done anything when turned on. Vanessa pulled out the flashlight she always carried with her and it flickered to life. She held her breath as she mounted the final few steps.

At the top of the stairs, there was another hallway. She debated going back down the stairs, but that wouldn’t do anyone any good, so she started at the end of the hallway, pushing the doors in timidly and peering in. Two bedrooms. An office. A closet. A bathroom. Vanessa resisted the urge to sigh out loud in relief. Nothing too bad. Except… she hadn’t looked very hard. What if there was a body under the bed? Spiders crawling through the pipes? A serial killer hiding behind the shelves. What if-

_No._ Vanessa shook her head in a desperate attempt to silence the voice in her mind. None of those things were real. _None of them. **None.**_

There was one last door at the end of the hall. Vanessa pushed it open and was surprised to see it led outside, onto a small balcony. It looked out over the woods and Vanessa’s breath caught in her throat. It was beautiful, a majestic forest. For the first time since they had left their old town, Vanessa felt her shoulders relax. Nature- this was something she could look out over and know it wasn’t planning on stabbing her in the back at the first opportunity.

A pale flash caught Vanessa’s eye. She glanced over to where she saw it, and froze. Her face drained of color as she stared, horrified, at a pair of eyes in the woods. The head tilted to the side and Vanessa’s breath picked up. Why was there a head in the woods?

Whatever it was stepped forward. Vanessa could make out the vague outline of a person, melting into the shadows of the forest. They made eye contact for one brief moment and Vanessa felt her blood run cold, but she was frozen in place.

The… figure smiled. Vanessa could see the flash of pearly white in the moonlight. The figure took another step forward and without another moment of hesitation, Vanessa bolted back inside, slamming the balcony door closed behind and sinking to the ground, breathing heavily.

What even  _ was _ that?

Screw nature, Vanessa thought, trying to calm her racing heart. She’d take a dead body over creepy forest spirits any day.


	3. Warren III

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Warren creeps around a bit and pays a visit to his new neighbors.

Warren had been understandably curious when a car drove into his street at 2AM in the morning. No one ever came into Sanctuary on accident. It was a small, reclusive town that was hard to find. Warren hadn’t been asleep anyways, so he pulled on some sneakers he kept in his room and unlatched the window. He shimmied out onto the window ledge, balancing carefully on the sill and he turned around and closed the window after him. From there he climbed down the side of the house like he had done so many times before. It was an activity Dale would’ve banned, so Warren was careful to never be caught.

He crouched low to the ground, running silently in the shadows. He made his way over to the part of the forest he knew well, hoping to get a better view of the strangers. He watched silently as a girl around his age got out of the car. She had dark skin and thick black hair that fell to just past her shoulders. She stretched and climbed the front steps. Two adults- her parents, presumably- climbed out of the car after her, looking over their shoulders cautiously. Warren wondered for a brief moment what they might’ve possibly been looking for.

_ They were probably looking for creeps in the woods who might be spying on them,  _ his brain provided helpfully. He ignored it and kept watching.

A few minutes later, the girl appeared on the balcony. She made eye contact with him and for a moment, they were both frozen in place, neither wanting to make the first move. Warren stepped forward after a moment and went to wave, but the girl ran inside and closed the door. Warren’s step faltered.

The family was curious, to say the least. He yearned to know more about them, but the logical part of his brain told him to approach them like a normal human being rather than a stalker from the forest.

Sighing with the lack of answers to the questions burning in his chest, he turned back and slouched back to his room, scaling the side of the house fairly easily and slipping back into his room. His questions would have to wait until tomorrow.

\---

Warren didn’t get very much sleep that night. In the morning, Dale knocked on his door and he slid out of bed onto the floor, where he lay for a few more minutes before standing up and yawning. Blinking the sleep out of his eyes, he changed for the day and looked at his alarm clock. 9:30AM. He frowned, cursing himself for sleeping so late.

Sprinting down the stairs, he grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl in the kitchen, hugged his parents, punched Dale on the shoulder and slipped into his hiking boots.

“Wait, where are you going?” Warren froze at Dale’s voice and turned around to see his brother eyeing him suspiciously.

“Out,” Warren said vaguely. When Dale raised a skeptical eyebrow, he elaborated. “We have new neighbors, I thought I might go greet them.”

That caught everyone’s attention. “We do?” his mother gasped, looking out the window. “Oh wow, we do! There’s a car in the driveway of the old Blackers’ house.”

Dale stood up and peered past their mother’s shoulder. “Huh,” he said. “Well, I’ll be damned.”

Warren laced up his shoes. Their mother turned back to him. “If you’re going over there, how about you take some bread or something? I just made a fresh loaf.”

She turned around and pulled a loaf of bread in a clear wrap and a jar of homemade raspberry jam out of the pantry cupboard. “Give them our best wishes, I have some work to do now, but can you invite them over for dinner tomorrow?”

“Sure,” Warren said, grabbing the items. He took a bite of his apple and slipped out of the door, running down the street, his satchel flapping against his hip.

Warren came to a stop in the driveway of the tall gray house. He bounded up the steps, wincing slightly as they creaked under his weight. Why would anyone in their right mind move here willingly?

Warren shook the thought from his mind and knocked.

The door swung open a moment later to reveal the girl from the night before. She peered around Warren and then looked back at him.

“Who are you?” she said suspiciously.

Warren stuck out a hand in greeting. She didn’t take it. “Warren Burgess, your neighbor. My folks send greetings, by the way. These are for you.”

The girl eyed the gifts in his hands with distrust.

“Who are you really?” she pressed. Warren blinked. What…? He opened his mouth to vocalize his confusion, but the girl eyed him up and down and slammed the door in his face.

Warren knocked again but she didn’t come back. He left the bread and jam on the doorstep as a peace offering and walked back down the stairs. He shot one last furtive glance over his shoulder in the off-chance that the girl has returned, but as expected, she hadn’t.

Sighing, Warren adjusted his satchel on his shoulder and bounded into the woods. The mysterious neighbors could wait until a later date. At the moment, he had an adventure to get to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> !! This was really short! Apologies for that, but the next chapter is turning out to be quite long and the real action is about to begin 👀


End file.
